`Smart' Traffic Signals Hold Promise

May 11, 2000

Traffic congestion on Palm Beach County roads is bad and getting steadily worse. On Glades Road in Boca Raton, it's not unusual to see cars backed up from Florida Atlantic University's main entrance to the Interstate 95 interchange, about a mile away. And that's not during rush hour, but in the early afternoon.

With FAU's student population expected to double in the next decade, that stretch of Glades Road could become a virtual parking lot. Unfortunately, it's not the only Palm Beach County roadway facing that prospect. And the problem is more than just a matter of not getting from place to place fast enough. Cars idling in traffic jams burn more fuel, pollute the air and contribute to a sometimes-fatal disease known as road rage.

But simply building more roads is a decreasingly viable option. During its just-completed session, the state Legislature allocated most of its road-building funds to central and northern Florida, home areas of key legislative leaders. South Florida didn't get much, but even if it did, the area's urban sprawl makes it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to add major new arteries to its network of roads.

Other solutions must be found, and computer technology may provide some of them. The city of Boca Raton hopes a new system of "smart" traffic signals that can "talk" to one another will speed things up and blaze a trail to a less congested future.

State Department of Transportation workers started laying fiber optic cables along city streets this month as part of a $4.3 million project to synchronize traffic lights by monitoring and comparing traffic flow on various roads at various times. It involves burying sensors in the asphalt near traffic lights. The sensors send signals to a main computer, telling it that cars are in a particular lane. The computer then determines when to change a traffic light. If more cars are heading in one direction than another, the computer will keep the light green longer in that direction.

"We can actually set the system up so you can change signal timing by time of day," said Bob DiChristopher, Boca Raton's director of municipal services.

And there's more. The city hopes the traffic signals will eventually have video monitoring cameras hooked up to them so planners will have another tool to determine traffic patterns and reduce tie-ups. The city is applying for grants to pay for the cameras, and hopes to have three of them up and running at busy intersections within a few years.

City officials also want to take control of about 20 lights currently controlled by the county, or to work with the county so those lights coordinate better with city traffic signals.

Fiber optics won't entirely solve the area's traffic woes. Additional solutions will certainly be needed. One-way traffic during busy periods on certain roads is one that should get serious consideration. But computerized synchronization is a start, and a good one.

In an era when road-building is at a near-standstill and the number of cars keeps growing, Boca Raton's creative, can-do approach to traffic congestion is a credit to urban planners and holds promise for Palm Beach County and its other municipalities as well.